Client issue: make sure you’re not paid in oddball funds

Here’s a situation I haven’t run into before. I’m sure many writers have, but luckily this issue has escaped me; until now that is…

1. First of all I took a gig with a somewhat promising blog client. The editor I had to report to was cool, the blog was my style, it seemed all good. Then:
2. The editor that hired me quit immediately and the new editor they hired was the world’s biggest pain. She peppered her emails and posts with flowery, wordy, annoying to the max wording. For example, she always called the writers things like deary and the most bestest of friends (OMG).
3. I got fed up and quit. BUT I did turn in my contracted work first and they used it.
4. The client put my pay into a PayPal account back in December 2008. Not my PayPal account mind you because they misspelled my email.
5. I emailed (in December) and for some reason they couldn’t get it fixed. No one seemed to be able to get my $ into my actual PayPal account.
6. I emailed the old annoying editor who also had not been paid and was of no help.
7. Finally in April I decided to email every single day until they paid me, hoping that by being annoying, I’d maybe get my $. Up til then I’d been emailing every week.
8. Finally one of the blog owners emailed in Mid April saying “OH SO SORRY” and said she’d send a check asap. Nothing.
9. I emailed again. The owner says, “I just had a baby and was busy.” Um, ok. That would be a decent excuse if my payment wasn’t already 5 months late. I had a long labor with my son, but really, not 5 months. Geez.
10. So amazing beyond amazing I get a check the other day. Guess in what sort of funds…? That would be Canadian. Since I’m in the U.S. the exchange rate is not currently in my favor and I’d lose part of my money if I cashed it.

I don’t care if a client owes you $20 or $200 not paying you is the lamest damn client deal ever, and it’s so annoying because I’ve never had this issue in other types of work. Writing appears to be the only career where clients feel it’s a luxury to pay you or not pay you for the work you’ve done on a whim. Not all clients of course, some are great, but all in all writers run into this too often.

Long story short – SUPER obnoxious client, but there’s a lesson here too. Before this, I never even thought to check and see what sort of funds a client will pay you in. If you’re in a different country, you should make sure you’re going to get paid say the $50 they owe you in actual U.S. funds. I know I will from now on for sure.

Have you ever had clients try to pay you in funds that lower due to the exchange rate?